


the barista life

by gyfrin



Series: in the city lovelight [2]
Category: zaqxsw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-05 19:51:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20278876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gyfrin/pseuds/gyfrin





	the barista life

"Hello, how's your day going?"

"Good," Lianna tries to stifle her laugh. "And you?"

"I'm doing- " Mark looks up from where he's been so focused on the register, finally realizing who stands before him. His eyes widen in surprise at the person over the counter, inelegantly choking on his own spit. "Li-Lianna!"

"Hi," she should be smiling, happiness overflowing within her. But more than that she feels bashful, still self-conscious at times. Especially when Mark gazes at her with such fondness, Lianna feels like she could implode on the spot from how her cheeks tinge pink and her face warm up.

Maybe she'll never get used to the fuzziness. Lianna didn't mind that.

"What're you doing here? Thought you were heading home," Mark asks, conversation colloquial yet there is a softness to his tone. A gentleness that wasn't evident earlier when he treated her like a customer.

"I was going to. But well," Lianna grins, shrugging. She's enjoying herself, enjoying the way that Mark was smiling at her with such merriment. It's not the first time she's surprised him at work. But each time she does it Mark reacts as if it's the first time, innocent wide sparkling eyes gazing at her like she's the only being in the room. Her voice drops a little bit so that his co-worker can't hear. "I was missing you at work today. So I came."

Mark is positively glowing with how bright his smile is at this point.

"I missed you too," he glances at the clock on the wall in the distance. "I have an hour left of my shift..."

"I'll be waiting of course," Lianna assures him. She reaches forward to gently squeeze his hand that's resting on the counter. "I'll order a drink too. I don't want to be sitting around without anything."

"No. That's not allowed," Mark quickly responds, already moving away to grab a ceramic cup to write down her order. A matcha latte. "My manager's not around it's fine. Let me use it as an excuse to practice my latte art."

"But I don't want you to get in trouble," Lianna is already reaching to grab her wallet from her backpack. She notices Mark pouting. Which is unfair because she's weak to it. But she has to stand her ground. So she looks away from him, fingers sliding the card onto the counter. She waits a bit more.

Mark eventually relents and allows her to pay. Satisfied by the result, Lianna heads towards a nearby table with her number. Coming from work she didn't bring anything so she settles for writing on her phone and playing mobile games.

"Here you go," Mark announces his arrival. There's a clunking noise that has her looking up in confusion. Beside her drink, there's a slice of cheesecake. 

"I didn't order-"

"That I know. But let me spoil you. Please?" Mark is softly pleading. Lianna wants to argue, opening her mouth but she falters. Her attention wanders because he's distracting her with how amazing he looks in a white button-up, brown half apron and black pants. It would be rude of her to brag, but she would confidently sign up her boyfriend for barista poster boy without a second of hesitance.

"Fine," Lianna caves in, the last of her fight in how she purses her lips into a straight line. "Thank you."

Mark is grinning again, proud of his accomplishment. He stares at her for a few seconds longer with tenderness. Lianna lightly taps her hands against his hips to get him to move along before she finds herself curling up from shyness. "Now go back to work before your co-workers complain about me distracting you."

"They'll understand," Mark responds, so innocently honest and with so much confidence that Lianna turns scarlet from the response immediately.

"Go!"

Having unearthed her forgotten earbuds from her bag, Lianna had spent a good while watching a show on Netflix. Half of it at least. The other half of the time was spent watching her boyfriend every so often. Lianna watches his expression as he interacts with other customers, the shyness and awkwardness she's so used to seeing vanishing in the face of professionalism. If she didn't know him and someone told her it was the same boy from back at the apartment she wouldn't believe them.

Her show is interrupted by piercing laughter much too high-pitch and loud for her ears to find pleasant. Lianna pauses her video, pulling her earbuds from her ears she looks around for her boyfriend.

Her eyes find Mark serving two drinks, one bright yellow and the other a milky pink, to two girls sitting a bit further into the cafe. He's hugging the tray close to his chest, putting on a professional smile towards the girls who're most definitely the source of the laughter from earlier. It had to be them with how their mouths hang open even now trying to catch their breaths.

Girls fawning over Mark wasn't something new to her. Out of reflex of her emotions, an uneasy feeling would settle into her stomach, but it's always quick to be repressed. Simply because if someone searched up the definition of loyalty and trust they would definitely find Mark Lee written into it.

So Lianna's about to turn her head back to her Netflix but then the laughter echoes through the air again. The lady close to her clicks her tongue in disapproval. Hazel hues glance back at the area.

Mark still hasn't left. He's been stopped by one of the girls.

"Can you at least let me give you my friend's number?" Pink drink girl insists. She's rummaging through her purse, probably for a pen. When she finds one, she has a victorious grin and she scribbles on a napkin.

Lianna reminds herself it's because Mark's at work that he can't leave them alone. The whole customer service shenanigan. 

"Please stop, you're embarrassing me," yellow drink girl says, groaning. "I'm sorry. She's so persistent."

Lianna's leaning in but she can't hear what Mark's saying. She only knows that his hands do not move from his tray, an adamant refusal of the napkin that's being shoved towards his chest.

"You called him cute I'm doing you a favour," pink drink girl retorts. "She's really cute trust me. Also, she doesn't mind coffee dates and she eats about anything so you don't have to worry about food choices."

Lianna can't help but feel a wave of pity for the girl who's being auctioned off by her friend. She's been there before and she can only describe it as torturous. 

"Stop," yellow drink girl is glaring at her friend now. "You're so ridiculous! Am I a joke to you?"

"Ridiculous?" The other girl's voice rises. Lianna can see Mark's eyes widening, terrified by what was going on right in front of him. "I'm trying to help you."

"Forcing a barista to go on a date with me isn't it!"

"Loosen up! It'll be fine," pink girl holds the napkin to Mark again, glancing at him. "You'd go on a date with her right? Even just one."

Now amused as Lianna is she's not about to watch her boyfriend suffer any longer. She purposely stands up, making sure her chair makes the ugly scraping noise across the floor to catch Mark's attention. Holding her half-finished cake, she makes her way towards the counter as if to return it.

"Sorry I have a customer to tend to. If you'll excuse me." Against the words of protest, Mark departs. Knowing him so well, she can easily tell how he's holding himself back from dashing from the scene. But he's still scurrying anyways.

"So," Lianna has to stop talking, biting the bottom of her lips to stop herself from laughing. It doesn't help that she can see over Mark's shoulder the two girls engrossed in his back view still arguing between themselves.

"That was quite the show wasn't it?" Mark is picking up the plate, pretending to discuss something about the cake with her. "I don't think I've ever seen two customers cause this much chaos."

"They're causing it over you. How do you feel?" The mirth simply bleeds into her features at this point, which probably isn't helping their guise but Lianna can't help herself. It's far too amusing.

"I don't like it," Mark says with a shake of his head.

"My boyfriends so popular," Lianna keeps on teasing.

"Stop it," it's Mark's turn to get embarrassed now. 

"I can't. Do you know they're still staring?"

"Well," Mark holds onto the plate, pretending to clean everything up on the counter. "My shifts going to be over in a few minutes so they can deal with things themselves."

"Excuse me!" A shrill voice calls out in the distance. Both of them wince instinctively. 

"It's over now actually," Lianna says, motioning for Mark to lean in. Obedient as ever, he listens to her and across the distance of the counter she plants a kiss on his cheek. 

Now she's not usually one for public displays of affections and neither is Mark. Usually, she'd probably turn scarlet if she did this, not even alcohol propelling the sort of confidence to go this far. But this is not a usual case. 

Maybe though she had denied it earlier she was still a little bit jealous and petty. Well, she did always say she was a Slytherin for a reason. Also, Lianna was definitely satiated when she glanced over behind Mark again to see the two girls looking at the wall instead of them.

"I can't believe you did that," Mark says without malice, eyes twinkling instead. Instead, he's laughing her favourite kind of laugh that comes out when he's having a lot of fun. Carefree and excited.

"Please, you love me," Lianna responds. She watches Mark untie his apron and move away from the counter towards her.

"That's right. I do," Mark says as he pulls her into a hug. A hug just for the two of them.

  
  



End file.
